The Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) FMC Ebute - Metta branch, held an emergency meeting on tuesday the 19th of August 2014.

 

At this meeting, members deliberated on the prevailing issues surronding healthcare in the country right now and came up with the following resolutions;

 

1) The MDCAN FMC Ebute Metta strongly condemns the suspension of the residendcy training program in the whole country. This action is illegal, and will hamper the provision of quality health care for the common man, and will interfere with the training of undergraduate medical students. This action alone has the capacity to set the country back several years, and will hinder the governments quest to achieve the united nations millennium development goals

 

2) We also affirm our support for the national executive committee of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and we abide by the resolutions of the emergency delegates meeting of the 14th august 2014, inline with the directives of the NMA, we will continue to render only emergency medical services at this time till otherwise directed .

 

Contrary to popular opinion, doctors do not enjoy being away from their duty posts, but we feel the soul of our profession is under threat, and therefor (painfully) need to defend it at this time. It was not a decision taken lightly.

 

The suggestion by the federal ministry of health on the engagement of locum doctors is ridiculous! They will not have the requisite qualification, experience and skills needed to perform at the level of tertiary healthcare. At best, it is a careless gamble.

 

3) We commend the federal and the lagos state governments for their combined efforts so far in trying to tackle the Ebola Virus Disease, members of the MDCAN (like other doctors) are available and ready to asist in the fight against this terrible disease.

 

We praise the efforts of the medical staff of the first consultants medical center who initially handled the index case of EVD. Particularly, we commend the doctors and nurses who lost thier lives and we extend our deepest condoloences to all the families of the deceased.

 

This case reminds us that we can achieve a lot if we work together without bickering; everyone knowing and doing what is expected of him/her

 

Signed: Dr oniha O.C (Secretary)